The Signature of the Northern Galactic Center Region in Low-velocity UV Absorption

Abstract

The Galactic Center (GC) is surrounded by plasma lobes that extend up to ∼14 kpc above and below the plane. Until now, UV absorption studies of these lobes have only focused on high-velocity components (∣ v _LSR ∣ > 100 km s ^−1 ) because low- and intermediate-velocity (LIV) components (∣ v _LSR ∣ < 100 km s ^−1 ) are blended with foreground interstellar medium. To overcome this difficulty, we present a differential experiment to compare the LIV absorption between different structures within the GC region, including the Fermi Bubbles (FBs; seen in gamma rays), the eROSITA Bubbles (eBs; seen in X-rays), and the Loop I North Polar Spur (LNPS) association, an X-ray and radio feature within the northern eB. We use far-UV spectra from Hubble Space Telescope to measure LIV Si iv absorption in 61 active galactic nuclei sight lines, of which 21 pass through the FBs, 53 pass through the eBs, and 18 pass through the LNPS. We also compare our measurements to those in the literature from sight lines covering the disk–halo interface and circumgalactic medium (CGM). We find that the FBs and eBs have enhancements in measured columns of 0.22–0.29 dex in log. We also remove the contribution of a modeled disk and CGM component from the measured Si iv columns and find that the northern eB still retains a Si iv enhancement of 0.62 dex in log. A similar enhancement is not seen in the southern eB. Since a notable difference between the northern and southern eBs is the presence of the LNPS association in the nothern bubble, the northern eB enhancement may be caused by the LNPS.

Keywords

• Milky Way Galaxy
• Galactic center
• Galactic winds
• Circumgalactic medium
• Quasar absorption line spectroscopy